Before collecting your kitten, ensure that the room it will live in for the next few days is ready. The room should be warm, and contain the kitten’s bed, food, toys, scratching post and litter tray. Place the food and litter tray as far away from one another as possible (cats don't like to go to the toilet near their food!). A good room to use is a small spare room – a very large room with lots of places to hide or wriggle into is not ideal.
If you are collecting your kitten in the summer time and do not have a car with air conditioning, it is strongly recommended that you wait until the evening to avoid over-heating the kitten.
On collecting your kitten, you will need to bring:
• A cat carrier with a comfy blanket. When transporting kittens, a seatbelt should be strapped around the carrier, or through its handle. (It is illegal to carry an unrestrained animal when travelling, and a kitten loose in a car is a hazard to itself, the car driver, and other traffic on the road.
• Equipment for dealing with any toilet-related accidents on the way home such as newspapers to go on your car seat under the carrier, and a spare blanket. (Your kitten may be very frightened and should not be scolded if it makes a mess!)
• The rest of the money for the kitten sale (breeders usually prefer cash, and may be unwilling to take a cheque).
The breeder should give you:
• The kitten’s registration papers, if these are available (the GCCF and FB can take a long time to process paperwork, so these may need to be sent on).
• A five-generation pedigree certificate.
• The kitten’s immunisation documents – these will detail when you need to inoculate your cat (once per year, starting from one year after you first take your cat home).
• A certificate of neutering, to be signed by the vet when your kitten is neutered, and returned to the breeder.
• An insurance certificate detailing your 6 weeks of free insurance. Most breeders will strongly recommend that you take out pet insurance. This costs only a few pounds per month - should your pet ever require extended vetinary care, you will not have to pay the cost. (Having had a cat that required a £2000 heart operation and three heart-scans at £300 each, I can personally vouch for the peace of mind that comes with not having to agonise over whether or not the vet care is worth the cost!)
• Some free samples of the food and litter that your kitten is used to.
• You may wish to request a small sample of used litter to put
in your kitten’s new litter tray when you get home – it will
recognise the smell, and accidents will be less likely!